MS Heading For Antitrust Showdown Over Vista?

September 15th, 2006: Microsoft has had another antitrust run in with the European Union’s competition regulator over new security features in its upcoming Windows Vista operating system.

Security additions such as Windows’ new anti-spyware tool, security centre and BitLocker drive encryption tool are all raising antitrust eyebrows and could delay Vista’s European launch.

The commission is concerned that these programs bundled in Vista could hurt competition. In an attempt to comply with antitrust problems that have plagued it in the past, Microsoft has released multiple versions of Vista, with different features in each. While it has bundled its anti-spyware tool in all versions, it has left its antivirus solution an add-on sold through its new Windows Live OneCare service.

BitLocker encryption also only appears in the two high-end editions of Vista, Enterprise and Ultimate, leaving the other versions free to be leveraged as an argument for Microsoft’s compliance to antitrust regulations.

In an open letter to the commission, Microsoft has warned that any regulatory actions could delay the European launch of Vista and compromise its security. The commission is currently talking to Microsoft about whether Vista has anticompetitive elements that must be changed.

With six different versions and varying levels of security additions in each, the vista release is looking more and more convoluted by the day. And security is only one of the potential antitrust issues the company could be facing in Europe.

At the end of the day, Microsoft says that it wants to secure its own software, not crush competition. Something European regulators fear could hurt consumers in the long run by limiting innovation.

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